Liberty, the London department store, said this morning that it has received bid approaches.

A deal would end months of speculation over the future of the Liberty store, which was put up for sale last July by its majority shareholder, property firm MWB.

Liberty said in a statement to the London Stock Exchange:

Further to the recent press speculation, the board of Liberty confirms that it has received approaches which may or may not lead to an offer being made for the company. At this stage, it is too early for the Board to determine whether or not these discussions will result in any formal offer being made for the xompany.

Over the past six months Liberty has been examining and assessing a range of options and initiatives that would enable it to build upon its success since the launch of the Renaissance of Liberty in February 2009. This has included seeking investors who could bring capital and expertise to help develop and grow the business both within the UK and internationally.

According to reports, Marco Capello, the former managing director of Merrill Lynch Global Private Equity, is close to buying Liberty through his investment fund BlueGem Capital Partners.

Capello is expected to pounce on the luxury retailer, which also has a wholesale fabric business, in a fortnight's time, when Liberty should have completed a £40m sale and leaseback of its Tudor-style building on Great Malborough Street.

Other suitors are thought to include the luxury investor and Sirius Equity founder Robert Bensoussan and global supplier Li & Fung, but Capello, who was involved in the privatisation of Debenhams during his time at Merrill Lynch, has reportedly outbid them. Liberty had a market value of £63m last night.

Also this morning, Aga Rangemastersaw 2009 profits before tax plummet to £500,000 from £14.4m the previous year. The upmarket cooker maker suffered a slump in demand for its traditional cast iron stoves during the recession, but expects sales to pick up again this spring.

William McGrath, the chief executive, said:

The generation of cash was the big achievement of 2009 and that remains the focus given the caution needed in the current market. Our lead indicators, however, are positive and after a slow order intake at the start of the year, the prospects are encouraging heading into the spring.

Night club operator Luminaradmitted today that its business has been "severely affected" by poor weather across most of the UK in the last two months of its financial year, which ends on 25 February.

The group is still trading within its debt covenants and continues to generate cash to reduce its borrowings. Debts have been cut by £49m to £93m.

Luminar has appointed Simon Douglas as chief executive to supervise a "rigorous cost reduction exercise".